The AntiSlayer
by Sgt. Rock1
Summary: Alternate S7 - Buffy comes face-to-face with the anti-slayer, created at the time of the true slayer but a being of evil created to make sure neither good nor evil will ever truly die. Please R&R!!!
1. Default Chapter

Taken from The Tiberius Manifesto, hidden in the vaults of the Council of Watchers:

_Before man, demons roamed the face of the earth.  However, within time the demons lost their purchase on this reality, and left through the mouth of hell.  Before the last demon left he fed off a human, mixing their blood and tainting the human soul.  The vampire. _

_The humans and the vampires grew in their ranks, however as the vampires fed, man's numbers and his hope dwindled.  It was at that time a powerful shaman used his magic to harness the power of darkness and channel it into a girl, his daughter, to create a being of light, to help fight the evil that faced them.  But nothing comes without a price, the world needed to redress the balance.  For this purpose the power was also granted to another girl, a girl fuelled by hate and pain, to make sure no side, good nor evil, would ever truly die.  Both slayers work in secret, hidden from the world around them, but early in the twenty first century, a day will come when the two must face each other in the final battle.  The outcome forever changing the face of the earth._

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Willow had a headache.  She was tired and she missed her friends.  But she was determined to finish the exercise before she slept, if all her power couldn't be taken away she had to be able to control it.  She lay on her bed and tried to float the pencil again.  She managed to get it a couple of inches in the air when she saw Warren again, tied to a tree, flesh torn from his body, screaming in pain.  

Suddenly there was a crash in her room, losing her concentration had caused the pencil to fly across the room, shattering a small purple lamp on the dresser in the far corner.  "I CAN'T DO THIS!" she screamed, and tears began to roll down her face.  Giles got up off the floor in front of the lamp and dusted himself off.  "Yes you can."  He smiled.  "You just need some rest, it's late, you need sleep"

"Giles, I can't sleep, I can't... If I sleep I dream, and my dreams…"  Giles took off his glasses, placing them in his pocket.  

 "They scare you, I understand.  You've taken a life.  No matter how hard you try you can't forgive, and you'll never forget." He paused, a memory pulled from the surface of his mind.  The life-less body of a young doctor flashed before his eyes.  Willow noticed the pause and looked up at him.  Pulled back to the present he continued, "But you will make peace with yourself.  The first step is trying to control your emotions."

"I'm not scared of my dreams Giles, I'm scared of waking up, not remembering and reaching over and she's not there… and that's when I remember and all I feel is rage, and pain, and I know all the hurt I've caused everyone… I've caused you.  Every time I wake up I lose a little more of my heart and I just don't know how much of it I have left."  She began to cry again, Giles knelt down at the bed and handed her a tissue.  She took it and wiped her eyes.

"Every time you wake up and you have those feelings, you're choosing not to give in to them.  You're trying to live with them.  You're not losing your heart.  Every time you wake up, you're getting a little bit of it back."

Willow looked up at Giles and wiped her eyes.  "Thank you, I don't know how I would have got through the last few months without you.  I know I'll never be able to make it up to you…." She trailed off.  "I think I will get some sleep."

"Ok," said Giles, smiling slightly "if you need me I'm just down the hall.  Goodnight."  Giles turned, looked at the remains of the lamp and left the room, closing the door behind him.  "I never liked that lamp anyway," he thought to himself as he went down the short corridor and turned into his room.

Willow got up, closed the curtains and wiped her eyes again.  She looked at the broken lamp and picked it up, dropping the remains in the bin.  She picked up the pencil and placed it next to the piece of paper on her desk, lay down on her bed and tried to focus her mind.  When her mind was cleared she focused on the pencil and floated it up in the air.  It angled down and the tip touched the paper, almost unconsciously writing on it.  When she finished the pencil dropped and she got up, reached for the paper and looked at what she had written.  There was one, very shaky word written over the piece of paper: 'TARA'.  She looked down at her feet and then placed the paper in the drawer by her bed.  Unsure how to feel she got undressed and got into bed.  Her dreams were blurred, images of her friends, of Tara, of Warren in the woods.  Feelings of pain, hurt, interjected with brief moments of happiness followed almost instantly by guilt and anguish.  As light slowly began to filter through the curtains, she curled herself up into a ball and continued to dream.

Even through the curtains Willow could feel the sun on her face as she woke.  She smiled, and rolled over expecting to see the face of her lover, but all she saw was the ugly green wallpaper and in that second she remembered everything. The gunshot, her actions afterward, the trip to England and her powers being stripped from her all flashed in front of her eyes before she had time to blink.  She closed her eyes hard trying to get rid of the images.  Like every day before it just intensified them.  She focused her thoughts and brushing back her hair she got out of bed and opened her clothes drawer.  At the top of the drawer was the piece of paper she had written on last night.  She placed it on top of the chest of drawers and got dressed, folded the piece of paper and placed it in her pocket.  She checked herself in the mirror, pushed a loose strand of hair behind her ear and headed out of the room and down the stairs to meet Giles for breakfast.

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Buffy had a headache.  She'd been patrolling for over an hour, and for just under an hour she'd had the doublemeat jingle stuck in her head.  Dawn trailed behind her, cross and stake at hand.  "You know, I always pictured this as being more exciting.  I mean, shouldn't you have killed something by now?"  She made a jabbing motion with her stake to emphasize her point.  Buffy looked back at her sister, "Dawn, patrolling comes as part of the slayer's job description, usually it's long, boring and tiring"

"Yeah, like last month when you killed Toknar, with that magic bong thingy, that was real boring."

"That wasn't a bong it was a… how do you know what a bong is?"  

"Wow, full moon." Said Dawn, changing the subject.  Buffy rolled her eyes at her younger sister.

"Not quite full, not for another couple of days, it's…

"Um, Buffy…" Dawn trailed off as Buffy noticed the pack of vampires heading towards them.  They were all in game face, looking for a fight. "Dawn, stake?"  Dawn passed Buffy her stake and got another from her backpack but to Buffy's surprise the vampires stopped, came out of game face and started to talk to each other.  Buffy was so surprised she stopped in her tracks to watch.

 "I thought you said the other slayer was in prison?" Said the first vampire turning to the others.

"I was told she was, maybe it's not her?" Said the second.

"Come on, tall, dark hair, wandering round a graveyard with a stake in her hand, who else is it going to be.  Slayer taking her sister out for a walk?"  He smiled at the others.

"Um…" said the third, jumping into the conversation "She's headed this way, I think maybe we should…." His words were cut off when a crossbow bolt ripped into his heart and he exploded in a cloud of dust.  Looking up they saw Buffy, crossbow at hand.  "You guys never learn do ya?"  Buffy dropped the crossbow, "don't you ever get tired of hanging out in graveyards?" She said, hitting the first and simultaneously kicking the second into a gravestone, breaking it in half.  She turned to kick the third, only to see him running into the night.  Buffy shrugged it off.  "I mean you couldn't find yourselves a nice little place somewhere, a sofa, couple of throw rugs…" The first vampire hit her in the stomach, following up with a kick to her head.  Buffy blocked it, knocking him to the ground.  "You could really do the place up, have other vamps over for dinner," The vampire jumped to his feet

"I'm not really a throw rug kind of guy," He said, catching her off guard and kicking her over to his friend who threw her to the floor.  The second looked down at her, "and we're not big on dinner parties."

"Well with that smell," she said getting to her feet "you really couldn't could you?" and rammed her stake into his heart.  He clutched it before falling to his feet and exploding into dust.  Buffy turned to look for Dawn but was knocked to the ground from behind, the first vampire jumping on top of her "I've finished playing"

He leaned into her neck.  "Me too" said Buffy, almost in a whisper and pushed him up into the waiting stake of her sister. As he passed her face his eyes widened and he exploded into dust, a small gold ring where his hand had been.  "And you said patrolling was boring" smiled Buffy.  Dawn smiled back.  "Too bad you're back at school next week."  Dawn went to speak but Buffy cut her off,   "Before you say it, you're not coming patrolling on a school night".

"Buffy, I really don't need reminding about going back to school, one more week left of holidays, let me enjoy it."  She offered her hand to her sister, who took it and pulled herself up to her feet.  "What's that?" Dawn asked, indicating the ring to Buffy.  

Buffy looked puzzled, and bent down to pick up the ring.  "I don't know, but there's a pretty design on the inside.  See?  Maybe he belonged to a bowling league?"  She joked.  Dawn rolled her eyes.  "I'll call Giles when we get back, they should be getting up over there about now.  He's bound to know.  That, and we still haven't been able to replace any of the books from the magic box yet."  She slipped the ring into her pocket.  "Let's head home, I don't think there'll be any more action tonight."  Dawn finished putting the equipment back in her backpack and smiled at Buffy.  "Good, I need sleep."  They headed for home.

"So," said Buffy "you were telling me about how you know what a bong looks like?"


	2. Chapter 2

As Willow walked into the kitchen she noticed Giles on the phone.  He turned to her and mouthed Buffy's name before he was pulled back to the conversation.  "Have you asked Anya about it?"  

"…Well won't she be at the magic box"

"…No, I suppose not"

"…And it didn't dust with the vampire?"

"……Good Lord"

Unable to keep up with the conversation Willow searched the cupboards trying to find something edible, which turned out to be cornflakes.  She grabbed a bowl from the draining board, wiped it and grabbed the milk from the fridge.  As she was doing this she kept catching Giles' side of the conversation.

"....What happened to the fourth one?"

"…And you didn't think to run after him?"

"…Well no, her safety comes first""

Willow sat down with her breakfast, Giles looked at her and smiled, she smiled back.  He turned back into the conversation

"…She's doing well, she's just walked in, would you like to talk to her?"

"…No, I understand.  Get some sleep… Goodnight."  The smile fell off Willow's face as Giles put the phone down.  When she left Sunnydale all her friends had been supportive of her, but since she arrived in England she got the feeling they were angry at her, or maybe even scared.  She couldn't blame them though, she managed to scare herself.  Giles tried to re-assure Willow, "She needed some rest, she said she would talk to you later."  Willow forced a brief smile as Giles sat down to finish his breakfast.  "Quite an interesting night patrol by all accounts, Buffy and Dawn were accosted by four vampires, one of whom left some sort of mystical ring behind."  He took another bite from his cereal

"Dawn was out patrolling with Buffy?"  Said Willow, concerned.

"Apparently Buffy thinks Dawn is ready, you didn't know?"

"No.  I'm kinda out of the loop at the moment."  Giles nodded, he knew the feeling.

"She's going to take the ring to Anya in the morning, if they can't find anything she's going to send us a picture, see if we can find anything in the council library."  Giles looked up at Willow who smiled and nodded.  A concerned look appeared on his face, "I didn't want to bring this up, but are you sure you're ready for today?"  Willow tried to hide her worry.  

"I think so, I've known it was coming for a while"

"I can probably get them to postpone if you want?"

"No, I can do it.  I'm not saying I'm not worried but I can deal."  Willow looked down at her bowl and stood up.  "If it's okay with you I'd like to go for a walk, clear my head"

"Aren't you going to finish your breakfast?"  

"I lost my appetite."  Willow said, looking down at the bowl.

"Would you like me to come with you?" Giles still looked concerned.

"No, I just need time to think, what time do we need to leave?" Asked Willow.  Giles looked at his watch.

"We need to be gone by noon."  He said.  With that, Willow picked up her coat, checked her watch and walked out the door.  

Giles stood up, took off his glasses and took out a handkerchief from his pocket to clean them.  As he put them back on, he picked up the phone.  He dialled and waited for someone on the other end to pick up.  He cleared his throat.  "I need to speak to Quentin Travers, it's urgent"

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"This was never meant to happen, there were only ever meant to be two"

Buffy opened her eyes to find herself standing in front of her own reflection.  As she looked around she saw herself an infinite number of times.  She was standing in a hall of mirrors with corridors going off to either side of her.  Feeling something at her feet she looked down to find a small black cat sniffing around her heels.  She looked up and noticed a figure standing behind her in the mirror.  It was too far away to make out but she thought it was a woman.  It was confirmed when she heard the figure begin to speak.  Buffy thought she recognised the voice, but couldn't quite place it.

"The balance has tipped, it needs to be redressed."

"Balance of what?  Who are you?"  Buffy turned around to look behind her, only to find herself standing in the middle of a field.  The cat stood beside her and looked around at its new surroundings.  When it was happy they were both safe it sat down beside her and began to lick its paws.  

The sky was clear and the sun was shining; a blanket lay on the grass before her.  She looked up at the sun and shielded her eyes from it.  As she looked down she saw a figure on the blanket and a picnic had been laid out.  "Hey B."  Said the figure.  Buffy smiled when she saw who it was.

"So whose head are we in this time?"  Buffy asked.

"Aren't we past asking that question?" replied Faith.  

"We still haven't had an answer."  

"Sometimes there isn't an answer, only more questions."  Said Faith.  Buffy accepted this and moved on.  "So why are we here this time?"  Said Buffy.

"You weren't supposed to come back again, the world's tipped in our favour now.  The balance needs to be redressed."

"What balance?"  Said Buffy, puzzled.  Buffy noticed the cat suddenly stopped licking its paws when it became aware of all the food on the blanket.  As it moved away Buffy looked back to Faith to see she was playing with something in her hands, Buffy recognised it as the ring she took from the vampire earlier that night.  Faith looked puzzled as she tried to put the ring on her finger but never seemed to get it past the tip.  "It won't fit our fingers." Said Faith, "there's not enough room," she put the ring down as a shadow was cast over her and she looked up at the figure standing at her back.  Buffy recognised the figure instantly.  It was Spike.  The sunlight almost glowed off his bleached hair.  He was in his vampire face, eating from an apple, blood pouring from the core.  He held it out to Buffy, "Hey Goldilocks, want a bite?"  

Suddenly Buffy heard a thunder clap behind her and she turned around.  The sky was dark, bolts of lightening flew from the sky and looming over her were four men on horseback, dressed in black suits.  Their faced morphed to show their vampiric form.  The cat leapt to Buffy's side and hissed loudly at the men.  Buffy turned to Faith for help, but only found an empty blanket.  As she turned around to face the horsemen she found herself back in the mirrored room.  

The shadowy voice began to speak again.  "They're coming, she's sent them to stem the tide.  She's hiding behind them, when she opens the gate the old ones will return."  This time Buffy couldn't see the figure, but she noticed the cat walking away to her left so she turned and started to follow it.  As she walked she started talking to the mysterious woman again.  "Who is she?"

"She is a vessel of hate and pain." Came the reply.  Buffy watched the cat turn and walk through one of the mirrors and vanish.  Buffy pulled her attention back to the voice "So I have to help her? Or… am I supposed to kill her?"  The figure stayed silent so Buffy repeated her earlier question "Who are you?"

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'TARA'.  Willow sat on the stone ring around the Trafalgar Square fountain and read the shaky word on the crumpled paper over and over.  Pigeons gathered around her feet looking for food, but were quickly moving on to passers by.  She felt tears begin to form behind her eyes but they didn't have a chance to appear as she felt water begin to splash against her back and the ground begin to shake.  The man standing next to her was caught off guard and lost his footing, falling into the water.  Other people grabbed on to anything they could close at hand, others fell to the floor.  Willow saw a man grab onto a young girl, to protect her from the quake.  The shaking grew stronger until she was forced to clutch onto the stone wall for safety.  Her surprise caused her to lose her grip on the paper, and the wind sent it into the fountain.  Willow noticed it begin to float away and reached out for it in desperation, but as the paper floated over the crest of the water away from her, a stray splash from the fountain hit it and sent it to the bottom and out of her reach.

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As Faith heard the thunder she jumped up ready to face the horsemen, only to find herself within the confines of the drab grey walls of her prison cell. She quickly became aware of the sounds of sirens and shouting coming from outside of her room.  She was surprised to see her cell door was open but more surprised when the shaking from the earthquake caused her to be thrown from her bed.  She managed to land on her feet only to be pushed to the floor by her cellmate, Sarah, running for the open door.  "Later Faith" she waved, and within a second was out of sight.  Through the door she spotted a couple of guards trying and failing to control the chaos.  Two more were running after a rather large woman as she headed down the steps in pursuit of another rather small guard.  As the quake subsided Faith sat down on the bottom bunk and heaved a sigh until the image of the horsemen flashed before her eyes.  "Buffy" she said to herself and stood up.  Running out of her room, Faith realised one of the guards was holding onto the balcony about to fall.  She wasn't sure whether one of the other inmates had tried to throw him over, or he'd just managed to fall during the quake.  Either way she didn't much care.  She ran past him but then stopped and turned to look at him again.  There was no way he could hold on much longer.  She thought about it for a second, and then ran back and reaching over grabbed his wrist.  She grunted under his weight, but pulled him up and over the side, and then dropped him to the ground.  He stood up and patted himself down, then realising where he was he became as official as he could under the circumstances.  "Why are you out of your cell?"  He took the baton from his belt.  "Get back there and wait for all this to be over."  She looked over her shoulder at the stairs down to the next level and then back at the guard and back behind her.  "There's no way you can get out of here, the quake shorted out the inside doors, but the outside ones are still locked."  Said the guard, Faith turned back to him

"Thanks for the tip." She said, and hit him square in the face.  He fell straight to the ground.  With some effort she managed to take the keys from his belt and ran down the steps.

Amid the confusion Faith managed to get to the exit, she was surprised to find there was no guard at the post but she didn't question it and fumbled with the keys until she got one to open the bars.  As the door slid open she heard a voice behind her "Hey Faith!  Wait for me!"  Turning, she saw Sarah running through the crowd towards her.  Quickly Faith went through the bars and slid them back into place, locking them behind her.  "Sorry, I gotta take this call." Faith smiled and ran beyond view of her cellmate.  She'd caused enough suffering already without letting another convicted criminal loose.  "Damn it!" Sighed Sarah.  She turned and ran back into the chaos.


	3. Chapter 3

Buffy awoke with the image of the horsemen fresh in her mind.  As she got dressed more images of the field and the hall of mirrors flashed before her.  She shook herself to clear her mind and went downstairs.  She found Dawn in the kitchen talking to Xander.  She noticed the dirty dishes in the sink and sighed.  "Hey guys."  Dawn and Xander smiled when they saw her.  Xander spoke first "Hey there sleepyhead, Dawn been filling me in on last night's patrol.  Sorry I missed it."

"I killed a vampire," said Dawn, beaming.

"I think you mentioned that," said Xander, smiling at Dawn.  Xander's tone changed as he addressed Buffy "I just came over to check you were both okay after last night's quake.  I wondered if we were jumping into research?"  Buffy looked puzzled

"Quake?"

"Last night, the earthquake?  You didn't feel it?"

"No…" Buffy trailed off into thought.  Then Dawn spoke up

"I just went back to sleep afterwards.  I figured it was just another quake until I saw the TV."  Buffy left them and walked into the next room and turned on the TV.  The headline scrolled across the bottom of the screen:  

THE DAY THE WORLD SHOOK

She sat down and began to listen to the anchorwoman.

_"A relatively small quake by some standards, it still caught many countries off guard.  Reports have come in from several countries, including __Britain__, which are not prepared for such geological occurrences.  So far the reports of deaths and injuries have been low.  The cause of the earthquake is still unknown, but scientists at __Sunnydale__University__ have already announced their theory is that solar flares caused the incident.  The earthquake causes similar damage in local areas to that of the last notable 'quake in January 2000.  City officials tried to calm the fears of residents believing the earthquake is heralding the apocalypse.  As he entered the town hall this morning, the major is quoted as saying "There is no reason to believe this event is a forerunner to any cataclysmic event.  There has never been any proof of supernatural occurrences in our town, and I intend it to stay that way."_

_  
_

Buffy turned off the TV and turned to see Dawn and Xander standing in the doorway.  "Buffy?" said Dawn concerned.

"It's probably nothing," said Xander trying to reassure her, "like she said, solar flares"

"Yeah," said Buffy weakly, looking up.

"I can probably take the rest of the day off if…"

"No, I'll be fine," said Buffy raising a smile.  "I need to go and see Anya about something."  She reached into her pocket and pulled out the ring from last night's patrol.  When the sunlight touched the ring it began to glow, making it impossible to see the pattern on the inside.  Dawn and Xander watched as she placed it on her index finger, but as she moved her other hand away, the ring was still in the palm of her hand.  Confused, she tried again with the same effect.  She tried again and again, every time the ring returned to the palm of her hand.  "What the…" she was cut off when Dawn spoke.

"Buffy, what is that?"

"It's the ring we found last night… It's too small for my finger."  

"Can I try?"  Asked Dawn.  Buffy hesitated but gave in and passed the ring to Dawn.  She slid the ring onto her finger, but as she pulled away she looked in astonishment as it was back in the palm of her hand.  "That is so cool," she said, and passed it, in turn, to Xander who couldn't get it past his knuckles.  He smiled at Buffy.  "My fingers are too big."  He passed it back to Buffy.  "It must be enchanted," said Buffy "Hopefully Anya will know something."  She rolled the ring between her fingers, almost mesmerised.  Xander snapped her out of it.

"Buff, you sure you're okay?" He asked.

"I'm sure" she said "don't you have some lifting you need to supervise?"  She looked at the ring again and slid it into her pocket.  A small glowing circle could be seen at her side until it faded away a second later.  

"Actually I do.  Call me if you need anything."  He turned to leave.

"Wait" said Dawn "can you drop me off at the mall?"

"Sure" he said and shrugged his shoulders

"See you for dinner Buffy?"

 "Yeah."  Buffy said as Dawn picked up her coat.  She and Xander left through the front door.

 "See you at dinner" shouted Dawn after they had gone from view.

Buffy heard Xander's car start and pull off down the road.  She went back into the kitchen and went to the cupboard to get a bowl for breakfast but found nothing.  She sighed and set about washing the dishes.

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Willow approached Giles' house dirty and wet.  The door opened and Giles appeared in the archway.  "Willow," he said concerned.  "I was worried, the earthquake…are you alright?"

"I'm fine," she said downheartedly and brushed past him into the house.  "I need to take a shower."  Giles turned his head and watched her walk up the stairs.  As he heard the bathroom door close he reached behind him and closed the door.

Giles walked into the kitchen and picked up the phone.  After dialling the number he waited for someone to pick up and he asked to speak to Quentin Travers.

"Quentin it's Rupert Giles, I want to say again how bad an idea this is…"

"…Just because you lost your slayers doesn't give you an excuse to try and get councils hooks into her friends… Don't try and pretend that's not what you're doing…"

"…What happens if she fails your tests?"  Listening to the reply he got angry

"Well that's just bloody marvellous isn't it?"  He shouted and slammed the phone down.  He took a handkerchief from his pocket and wiped his brow.

Willow came down the stairs and met Giles about an hour later.  "Are you sure you're ready for this?" Giles asked.  Willow looked up at him "No," she smiled.  

They left the house and walked in silence for about ten minutes until they reached Holborn, an underground train station.  "We're taking the subway?" Willow asked when they got there.

"Wait and see," said Giles smiling.  When they reached the ticket office Giles took a card out of his wallet and showed it to the man behind the desk.  The man nodded slightly, and Willow noticed him reach under his desk and press a button.  He handed the card back to Giles, who slid it back into his wallet.  "Have a good ride" he said and smiled at them.  Willow smiled weakly back and followed Giles through and down to the tube station.  Willow was surprised how dirty the station was.  England had always inspired images of green fields and men in tweed, but the reality was much the same as America.  Lots of different kinds of people pushing and shoving their way to where they wanted to go.  They boarded the train, and both of them grabbed a rail by the doors.  "Hold on," said Giles.  
    
    Willow was still confused.  She had no idea where they were going, all she knew was why they were going there, and that scared her more than anything.  The train stopped a few moments after it had started and the doors opened.  No passengers got off apart from Giles, who beckoned Willow to step off the train.  As she did so the doors closed behind her and the train left the station.  She noticed a London underground sign painted on the wall.  It was faded from lack of care over the years but Willow could make it out as reading 'British Museum'.  It was quite dark on the platform, with small yellow lights along the wall illuminated the small space.  There were old posters peeling off the walls, and all the entrances and exits seemed to be bricked up except one large wooden door on the far left hand side which has a 'maintenance only' sign at the side of it.  Giles walked up to it and as he put his hand on the handle, he looked to Willow. "Are you ready?" he asked.  She nodded and Giles turned the handle and pushed the door.  He walked through the archway and beckoned Willow to follow him.  She walked through.

What Willow saw next amazed her.  She was in a large well lit room, the walls were wood panelled and there was a thick carpet beneath her feet.  On the far wall there was a landscape, in front of which there was a rounded wooden desk and a woman sitting behind it. Willow guessed correctly that she was in her late fifties.  There was a man talking to her so Giles and Willow sat down on the bench that ran down one of the walls.  As she sat down Willow was able to take in the whole room.  Paintings lined the walls, mostly of middle aged men or women.  On closer inspection she saw small golden plaques beneath them, on which there was a name and two dates, which were mostly very close together.  She turned to Giles.  "Why is there no earthquake damage down here?"  She asked.

"The headquarters are protected from most forms of natural and un-natural disaster, I assume the rest of the underground is too."  He hesitated for a second and added: "The natural ones at least."

Willow saw the man at the desk leave and exit the way they had come in.  He nodded to Giles who nodded in return.  Giles got up and approached the desk.  The woman looked up and smiled.  "Ah Mr. Giles, we haven't seen you in an age.  Mr. Travers is expecting you; I trust you remember the way?"  She continued to smile and Giles reciprocated "Yes, thank you Mrs. Hayes."  He walked forward and opened one of the double doors and Willow followed, still too bewildered to say anything.

They walked into a series of interconnecting corridors.  The décor was much the same as in the previous room, with more portraits.  As they walked on Willow began to feel daunted by her upcoming trial, and the shadows and paintings seemed to loom towards her.  Eventually she spoke.  "Who are all these people Giles?"  She asked.

"They're all of the people who have been watcher to a slayer.  The dates below are the years their slayer, um…"

"Survived?"  Asked Willow.

"Fought," he said.  Willow noticed Giles always had a problem talking about the deaths of slayers.  She wondered if he knew any before Buffy.

When they passed the next paining, Willow looked at the plaque:

Dr. John Dee

1572 - 1572

His slayer hadn't even lived out the year.  Willow wondered whether there was a painting of Giles somewhere in the labyrinth.  They walked on turning every so often.  Every twenty feet or so they passed a doorway, each had a small golden plate on it, similar to the paintings.  These plates had on them the names of people or departments.  She passed two doors on either side of her; to her left the door was labelled '321. Jacob Stevens' and to her right '322. Mystical chants and bacchanals'. 

"And I thought the initiative was big," she thought.  She looked over at Giles who appeared to her as a small child in a theme park.  "He must really love it here," she thought.

Noticing Willow's silence, Giles tried to think of something to say.  "We're actually directly below the British Museum," he said.  "The council had the station closed down in the thirties to allow for easier access.  In fact, before I moved to Sunnydale I used to work," he paused to think, "about ten feet about your head."  Willow looked up and her eyes met with the white ceiling.  "I used to be museum curator," he said proudly.  When Willow looked down she saw another painting of a man, probably late thirties, who looked vaguely familiar.  She looked at the gold plate below it.

Quentin Travers

1972 - 1976

"Four years," thought Willow.  Giles stopped at the door beside the painting

"Here we are," he said to Willow.  

"What happens if I can't pass their tests?"  She asked.

"I honestly don't know."  He opened the door and beckoned her through it.  She took a deep breath and passed in front of him.  Giles smiled as she looked at him and closed the door behind them.

Willow couldn't help but be impressed by the room she now stood in.  The ceiling was much higher than of those in the corridor, and a large chandelier hung from the centre.  At the far end of the room was a large mahogany fireplace with a family photo hanging over the mantelpiece.  It was lined with artefacts from all over the ancient world.  Willow recognised some were Egyptian and Babylonian, but she couldn't identify the others.  There were other tables and cabinets around the room, each with photos or artefacts on them.  In the centre of the room there sat a large ornate three person seat, and matching chair.  In the chair sat a man Willow instantly recognised as Quentin Travers.  He appeared quite relaxed, but his presence there dominated the room and filled Willow with an inexplicable sense of fear.  He stood up.  "Mr. Giles, Miss Roseburg."  He offered his hand out to Giles but he didn't take it.

"Quentin," said Giles coldly.

"Won't you sit down?"  Quentin indicated the seat in front of him and they both sat down.  As he took his chair he poured himself a glass of brandy, which was sitting on the table between them.  Two empty glasses sat on Giles and Willow's side of the table.  "Care for a drop?"  He asked, they both declined.  "Down to business then."  He addressed Willow, "Miss Rosenberg, do you understand what's going to happen?"  Willow shook her head.

"Not completely," she said honestly.

"It's quite painless." he smiled; Willow didn't.  He continued, "I'm going to be candid with you.  You have the capacity within you to be one of the most malevolent forces of darkness this world has ever known and we have to do everything within our power to stop that.  You have to pass three trials, each one will test a different aspect of your powers so we can assess the risk you pose and make sure it's safe for you to return to Sunnydale."

"What if it's not safe?"  Asked Willow worried.

"We'll discuss that later," he said and stood up.  "Follow me please."  He walked over to another set of double doors on the right hand side of the room.  Willow and Giles got up to follow.  "Rupert, you'll have to stay here, have a drink, it's quite a nice drop."  Giles glared at him for a moment and turned to Willow.

"I'll be right here when you've finished," he said.  Quentin opened one of the doors.  Willow looked back to Giles and smiled weakly.  Turning she walked through the door.


End file.
